The continuing global crisis of HIV/AIDS is prompting a continuing response from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Health ministry leaders are preparing an “Adventist Church Leaders Manual on HIV/AIDS” for release later this year.

“We are always being asked for material for information on HIV/AIDS,” says Dr. Allan Handysides, health ministries director for the Adventist world church.

The manual’s content will be aimed at leaders of local congregations, such as deacons, elders, and pastors—in short, all of those who are involved with local church leadership. It will be published online and will also be available in printed form.

“We see it as a tool for pastors,” says Handysides. “We want to put resource material in their hands.”

Since each region of the world has their own needs regarding HIV/AIDS, Handysides is encouraging church administrators worldwide to send their recommendations for the manual.

“We want it to be somewhat heavy on how to counsel,” he says. “There’s a need for sensitivity.”

Handysides says there is a “tremendous mythology” about HIV/AIDS that needs addressing, with facts replacing myths. Some common untruths about the disease are that one can get HIV/AIDS from casual contact, or from mosquitoes, “which is not at all true,” he says, 

In many parts of the world, poverty, homelessness and starvation sometimes exist along with the disease, Handysides says.

“Sometimes the only way a person can see themselves surviving is through prostitution. They may think, ‘What’s HIV/AIDS 10 years from now if I can’t feed my baby today?’ We don’t always look at that with the compassion that we need to,” he says.

Other issues arise within the church. Some are concerned about washing the feet of an AIDS patient. “What if someone has a footsore or open wound? What if a woman is menstruating? These are all serious questions,” says Handysides.

According to the World Health Organization, some 42 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002, with 5 million new infections reported during that year, a number which translates to approximately 14,000 new HIV infections a day. More than 95 percent of these new infections are in developing countries, according to the WHO, a United Nations agency.

The manual is being considered an essential tool in the numerous church efforts to combat the epidemic. Recently, the church in Africa organized a regional conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, to address the issue. That conference was followed by a summit with the state president in Nairobi, Kenya, where the church pledged “total war” against the disease.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), in addition to cosponsoring the Harare conference, has undertaken numerous other programs aimed at helping those stricken with AIDS. In 2002, ADRA started a new HIV/AIDS program in the town of Mooi River in KwaZulu Natal Province, South Africa. The multi-faceted, three-year program focuses on prevention strategies, support groups, economic development activities and home-based care for those suffering from AIDS. Also that year, the agency published a children’s activity book to educate young people about the disease.